William Hazlitt Quotes - Page 23

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• The Princess Borghese, Bonaparte's sister, who was no saint, sat to Canova as a reclining Venus, and being asked if she did not feel a little uncomfortable, replied, "No. There was a fire in the room."

  William Hazlitt

  Princess, Fire, Saint

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• An honest man is respected by all parties.

  William Hazlitt

  Honesty, Party, Men

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1485, Delphi Classics

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• Humanity is to be met with in a den of robbers.

  William Hazlitt

  Humanity, Dens, Mets

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.518

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• It is well there is no one without fault; for he would not have a friend in the world. He would seem to belong to s different species.

  William Hazlitt

  Optimistic, Different, World

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1473, Delphi Classics

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• Any woman may act the part of a coquette successfully who has the reputation without the scruples of modesty. If a woman passes the bounds of propriety for our sakes, and throws herself unblushingly at our heads, we conclude it is either from a sudden and violent liking, or from extraordinary merit on our parts, either of which is enough to turn any man's head who has a single spark of gallantry or vanity in his composition.

  William Hazlitt

  Women, Vanity, Coquette

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• Our notions with respect to the importance of life, and our attachment to it, depend on a principle which has very little to do with its happiness or its misery. The love of life is, in general, the effect not of our enjoyments, but of our passions.

  William Hazlitt

  Passion, Love Life, Attachment

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.170, Delphi Classics

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• The contemplation of truth and beauty is the proper object for which we were created, which calls forth the most intense desires of the soul, and of which it never tires.

  William Hazlitt

  Soul, Desire, Tire

  William Hazlitt (1824). “Sketches of the Principal Picture-galleries in England, with a Criticism on "Marriage A-la-mode.".”, p.5

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• However we may flatter ourselves to the contrary, our friends think no higher of us than the world do. They see us through the jaundiced or distrustful eyes of others. They may know better, but their feelings are governed by popular prejudice. Nay, they are more shy of us (when under a cloud) than even strangers; for we involve them in a common disgrace, or compel them to embroil themselves in continual quarrels and disputes in our defense.

  William Hazlitt

  Eye, Thinking, Clouds

  William Hazlitt (2008). “Liber Amoris and Related Writings”, Carcanet Press

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• Life is the art of being well deceived.

  William Hazlitt

  Art, Deceived Us, Deception

  William Hazlitt (1817). “The Round Table: A Collection of Essays on Literature, Men and Manners”, p.36

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• Learning is, in too many cases, but a foil to common sense; a substitute for true knowledge. Books are less often made use of as spectacles to look at nature with, than as blinds to keep out its strong light and shifting scenery from weak eyes and indolent dispositions. The learned are mere literary drudges.

  William Hazlitt

  Nature, Strong, Book

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1091, Delphi Classics

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• The great have private feelings of their own, to which the interests of humanity and justice must curtsy. Their interests are so far from being the same as those of the community, that they are in direct and necessary opposition to them; their power is at the expense of OUR weakness; their riches of OUR poverty; their pride of OUR degradation; their splendour of OUR wretchedness; their tyranny of OUR servitude.

  William Hazlitt

  Pride, Justice, Community

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.411, Delphi Classics

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• Wrong dressed out in pride, pomp, and circumstance has more attraction than abstract right.

  William Hazlitt

  Pride, Abstract, Circumstances

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.979, Delphi Classics

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• No man can thoroughly master more than one art or science.

  William Hazlitt

  Art, Science, Men

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.261, Delphi Classics

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• That humanity and sincerity which dispose men to resist injustice and tyranny render them unfit to cope with the cunning and power of those who are opposed to them. The friends of liberty trust to the professions of others because they are themselves sincere, and endeavour to secure the public good with the least possible hurt to its enemies, who have no regard to anything but their own unprincipled ends, and stick at nothing to accomplish them.

  William Hazlitt

  Hurt, Men, Humanity

  William Hazlitt (2016). “Characters of Shakespeare's Plays”, p.48, William Hazlitt

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• Weakness has its hidden resources, as well as strength. There is a degree of folly and meanness which we cannot calculate upon, and by which we are as much liable to be foiled as by the greatest ability or courage.

  William Hazlitt

  Weakness, Degrees, Liable

  William Hazlitt, William Ernest Henley (1902). “The Collected Works of William Hazlitt: Memoirs of Thomas Holcroft. Liber amoris. Characteristics”

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• There is evil poured upon the earth from the overflowings of corruption-- Sickness, and poverty, and pain, and guilt, and madness, and sorrow; But, as the water from a fountain riseth and sinketh to its level, Ceaselessly toileth justice to equalize the lots of men.

  William Hazlitt

  Pain, Men, Justice

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• There is nothing good to be had in the country, or if there is, they will not let you have it.

  William Hazlitt

  Country, Ifs

  'The Round Table' (1817) 'Observations on Mr Wordsworth's Poem 'The Excursion"

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• There are persons who are never easy unless they are putting your books and papers in order--that is, according to their notions of the matter--and hide things lest they should be lost, where neither the owner nor anybody else can find them. This is a sort of magpie faculty. If anything is left where you want it, it is called litter. There is a pedantry in housewifery, as well as in the gravest concerns. Abraham Tucker complained that whenever his maid servant had been in his library, he could not see comfortably to work again for several days.

  William Hazlitt

  Book, Order, Library

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• Violence ever defeats its own ends. Where you cannot drive you can always persuade. A gentle word, a kind look, a god-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. There is a secret pride in every human heart than revolts at tyranny. You may order and drive an individual, but you cannot make him respect you.

  William Hazlitt

  Respect, Heart, Pride

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• The thing is plain. All that men really understand, is confined to a very small compass; to their daily affairs and experience; to what they have an opportunity to know, and motives to study or practice. The rest is affectation and imposture.

  William Hazlitt

  Opportunity, Men, Practice

  William Hazlitt (1845). “Table Talk: Opinions on Books, Men, and Things”, p.51

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• Envy is the most universal passion. We only pride ourselves on the qualities we possess, or think we possess; but we envy the pretensions we have, and those which we have not, and do not even wish for. We envy the greatest qualities and every trifling advantage. We envy the most ridiculous appearance or affectation of superiority. We envy folly and conceit; nay, we go so far as to envy whatever confers distinction of notoriety, even vice and infamy.

  William Hazlitt

  Passion, Pride, Thinking

  William Hazlitt (2015). “Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)”, p.1466, Delphi Classics

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• There are many who talk on from ignorance rather than from knowledge, and who find the former an inexhaustible fund of conversation.

  William Hazlitt

  Ignorance, Ignorant, Conversation

  William Hazlitt (1837). “Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].”, p.77

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• What passes in the world for talent or dexterity or enterprise is often only a want of moral principle. We may succeed where others fail, not from a greater share of invention, but from not being nice in the choice of expedients.

  William Hazlitt

  Nice, Choices, Principles

  William Hazlitt (1871). “The Round Table. A collection of Essays ... By W. H. and Leigh Hunt”, p.468

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• I have a much greater ambition to be the best racket player than the best prose writer.

  William Hazlitt

  Ambition, Player, Being The Best

  William Hazlitt, Duncan Wu (1998). “The Selected Writings of William Hazlitt”, Pickering & Chatto Ltd

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• A certain excess of animal spirits with thoughtless good-humor will often make more enemies than the most deliberate spite and ill-nature, which is on its guard, and strikes with caution and safety.

  William Hazlitt

  Animal, Safety, Enemy

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